"Stay focused on your goal. You can't start thinking about the pain. You have to push through absolutely as hard as you can."

HOBOKEN -- Water, for good and bad, has been a constant in the life of Mayor Dawn Zimmer.

Her father, Bill, was a tugboat captain for Texaco.

New Hampshire -- where Bill Zimmer and his wife, Hazel, a social worker, raised the future Jersey transplant and her twin brother, Tim -- has 18 miles of coastline on waters Bill would navigate for months at a time before his kids were born.

Perhaps it was inevitable that when Zimmer attended the University of New Hampshire a roommate suggested she try out for the crew team. Already a skilled athlete at several other sports -- including field hockey, cross-country running and skiing -- Zimmer immediately loved it.

“When you think about it, no other sport really demands that you work that closely as a team,” Zimmer, a lefty who rowed portside, said in an interview last month.

The lean, athletic UNH student, Class of ’90, of course had no way to know that 22 years hence the New Jersey coastal town she would become mayor of would be ravaged by raging sea waters stirred by a historic storm. Or that that hurricane would lead to the biggest political storm of her mayoralty.

On Jan. 18, Zimmer made national news when she declared on MSNBC that last May, two members of Gov. Chris Christie’s cabinet told her that if she didn’t throw her support behind a development project proposed for the city’s northwest section, state-controlled aid to help communities recover from Hurricane Sandy would be withheld from Hoboken. The law firm that represented the developer, the Rockefeller Group, is headed by David Samson, a close friend of Christie's and chairman of the Port Authority. In the wake of her charges and the subsequent controversy, the developer has severed ties with Samson’s law firm.

The two cabinet officials – Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno and state Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Richard Constable – have denied threatening Zimmer.

Zimmer’s statements came on the heels of two separate investigations being launched into what has been dubbed Bridgegate, the scandal in which Christie associates apparently engineered a traffic backup leading to the George Washington Bridge that clogged the streets of Fort Lee for several days in September as an act of political retribution.

Zimmer, a Democrat who remained officially neutral in last year’s gubernatorial election but had nice things to say about the Republican governor leading up to the election, has been interviewed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The feds are trying to corroborate her story through writings in her diary and interviews with aides and other people she spoke to about the matter. Zimmer has said she didn’t come forward in May because she didn’t think anyone would believe her.

At the same time that Zimmer is striking out against alleged state-level intimidation, she is also facing a rear-guard assault in the form of a lawsuit re-filed last month by the city’s public housing chief in which he accuses the mayor of pursuing an urban “ethnic cleansing” agenda and pushing him to hire political allies.

Asked how she was coping with being at the center of this high-stakes political swirl, which could potentially derail Christie’s presidential ambitions, Zimmer chose a water metaphor to explain the way she operates.

“I just keep swimming toward the goal,” she said. “I was raised to do what you believe is right. My approach in life is that there are always going to be people who criticize you. I just let it flow over my shoulders like water.”

Hoboken Freeholder Anthony Romano -- who is firmly situated in the “old Hoboken” camp while Zimmer, who moved to town from Manhattan in 2002 with her husband and two sons, is considered part of “new Hoboken” – believes the mayor.

“I think for her to fabricate something is unlikely,’’ he said. “To go on national TV, there has to be some credibility. I would hope that my constituents in Hoboken are not being denied any allotment of funding that we need.”

He went on to pay Zimmer the ultimate political compliment, old-Hoboken style.

“She is a tough cookie,’’ he said. “You can’t underestimate her. Even this thing with Christie shows she’s got balls.”

THE ‘ACCIDENTAL POLITICIAN’

Several names were batted around in 2007 when a loose-knit group pushing for more open space and lower-rise development in the southwest section of Hoboken decided they could increase their influence several-fold if they elected one of their own to the City Council.

The potential candidates included David Mello, an early member of the Southwest Parks Coalition, and Stan Grossbard, who ran his family’s diamond manufacturing and wholesaling business. Another potential candidate was Dawn Zimmer, Grossbard’s wife, who had taught English for two years in Japan, worked for a global communications firm in the Big Apple, earned a degree in history at the University of New Hampshire and was a stay-at-home mom at the time.

Availability and willingness carried the day.

“She had a great personality for it,” Mello, the current council rep for the area, said recently. “Her advocacy is very genuine. And most importantly, she seemed thick-skinned enough and tough enough to handle a local political battle when at a time those things could get pretty heated.”

And hotly contested they were.

The 2007 competition between Zimmer and 4th Ward incumbent Christopher Campos required a general election in May, a June runoff and finally a November runoff to determine a winner. Three elections in seven months.

Her run for mayor two years later was even more of a roller-coaster ride -- this victory coming with an assist from the FBI.

"We were a grassroots campaign funded by individuals, and it felt like the entire state political machine was against us," Zimmer told the University of New Hampshire Online Magazine last year about the race.

Newly sworn in Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano is led into the federal courthouse in Newark during the Operation Bid Rig III roundup in July 2009. His downfall cleared the way for City Council President Dawn Zimmer to become mayor.Robert Sciarrino/Star-Ledger file photo

In a six-way election, Zimmer came in second to fellow council member Peter Cammarano, who bested her by about 100 votes. Cammarano then won the June runoff election by 161 votes.

But Cammarano’s time as mayor was short-lived. Twenty-three days into his mayoralty, he was arrested as part of the Operation Bid Rig III sting that took down dozens of corrupt Hudson County pols. Cammarano was convicted of accepting $25,000 in bribes from an FBI informant and served a little over a year and half in prison.

As city council president, Zimmer became acting mayor and then won the job for real in a special election in November 2009.

NOTHING EASY

The first week on the job, a small plane and a sightseeing helicopter collided and crashed into the river near the Hoboken shoreline, killing nine people.

Soon, the city’s hospital went bankrupt. A state monitor was brought in to run the city’s finances. The city's former parking director and a contractor were convicted of stealing more than $1 million in coins from parking meters.

Then Zimmer had the audacity to nix a cherished Hoboken tradition: the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which she described to the New York Times as a “puke-fest and a complete drunk-fest.” Bar owners and the organizers of the annual event were enraged.

There was also the discovery of shipworms, strange eel-like clams that were burrowing into one pier’s wooden structure, causing a park and street to collapse.

For most of her mayoralty, she’s held a slim 5-4 advantage on the council, which means major issues become a tug-of-war, and a bond ordinance measure, which requires six affirmative votes, is practically a steel-cage death match.

Zimmer has also had her share of internal trials and tribulations.

Hoboken Housing Authority Director Carmelo Garcia, who was elected a state assemblyman in November, is among a number of city employees who have sued the mayor. Ashlee Espinal/Jersey Journal file photo

In August, Hoboken Housing Authority Executive Director Carmelo Garcia filed a suit accusing Zimmer of carrying out an urban "ethnic cleansing initiative” and harassing him after he resisted pressure to hire professionals with ties to the mayor.

According to Garcia, he and his board developed plans to create 44 units of affordable housing, post-Sandy. But Zimmer would only support market-rate housing and “vouchers” for people who couldn’t afford the rent, according to Garcia.

A state Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit, but Garcia, who was elected to the state Assembly in November, re-filed it last month and released a recording he secretly made of a meeting he had with the mayor’s husband, Grossbard.

Garcia argues that when Grossbard is heard saying “all of this that you’re talking about goes away because everyone’s comfortable,” the mayor’s husband is using coded language to say if you hire this attorney the harassment you’re experiencing will stop.

Gerald Krovatin, Zimmer’s attorney, says the recording shows “Mr. Grossbard acting at all times in a completely legal and appropriate manner,” even when Garcia tried to “bait” him by offering to support Zimmer for re-election in exchange for job security.

Hoboken Police Chief Anthony Falco has also filed a lawsuit against Zimmer. He says the mayor has undermined his authority because of political and personal grudges.

The complaint that Falco lodged against Zimmer notes a tragedy in the the future mayor's personal life.

The mayor, it alleges, blames him for "not doing enough" to solve the fatal hit-and-run accident that involved her father-in-law, Henry Grossbard, in April 2005. New to the city, Grossbard, 79, was walking his dog when he was hit at the corner of Third Street and Sinatra Drive.

The driver has never been brought to justice; Falco was in charge of the investigation.

In another incident, Patrick Ricciardi, a former IT worker for the city who admitted to intercepting and forwarding emails that were sent to Zimmer and others in City Hall, was sentenced in August to five years probation.

Zimmer, who appeared at the sentencing, was incensed by what she interpreted as a slap on the wrist.

"I don't feel he's paid for his crimes," Zimmer said at the time.

More disappointing to the mayor is a recent jury verdict awarding more than $1 million in back pay and damages to former Hoboken Public Safety Director Angel Alicea, who accused the city of forcing him to resign in April 2011 because he is Hispanic and complained of improprieties in the police department. The city is appealing the verdict. Zimmer testified that she requested his resignation because he lied about meeting with Solomon Dwek, the FBI informant at the center of the Operation Bid Rig III sting. Alicea was not charged with any crimes.

St. Mary Hospital, the oldest hospital in the state, became Hoboken University Medical Center in 2007.Reena Rose Sibayan/Journal file photo

TWO WHOPPERS

According to Zimmer, these skirmishes – as well as her current standoff with the Christie administration – pale in comparison to the two biggest challenges she has faced as mayor: the potential closing of the city’s only hospital and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

“The future of Hoboken was really on the line with the hospital,” Zimmer said. “It was extremely stressful. The stakes were just tremendous.”

Through privatization, the Zimmer administration saved the city’s cash-strapped hospital — New Jersey’s oldest — from closing, saved more than 1,200 jobs and relieved city taxpayers of a $52 million bond guarantee.

“It would have been a disaster if that sale didn’t go through,” Zimmer said.

A year after the sale of the old St. Mary’s Hospital was approved by the state, Hurricane Sandy barreled into town, putting 80 percent of the city underwater.

The financially salvaged Hoboken University Medical Center had to be evacuated because of flooding. Hoboken’s PATH station stayed closed for seven weeks after Sandy struck. Thousands of residents in basement and first-floor units had to leave their homes. Some 20,000 people were stranded for days after the storm hit. To the consternation of some county officials, Zimmer put out a public distress call for the National Guard to be sent in.

The city slowly rebounded, and Zimmer has taken the long view on the fixes.

Noting several elderly people sustained falls after Sandy knocked power out in their buildings, the UNH Online Magazine reported that Zimmer lobbied the state to pass a law requiring emergency lighting in multi-unit buildings.

The mayor in December traveled to Washington to urge a Senate committee to change insurance rules so people in so-called “basement” apartments can collect flood insurance.

In February of last year, she made national news with her proposed "universal solution" that would use state and federal money to protect the city with walls, floodgates, absorbent "green" roofs and a mini-power grid.

In November, President Obama named Zimmer to the Presidential Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience.

FIGHT AHEAD

To be sure, the case has not been made that Hoboken has been slighted in the state’s distribution of Sandy-aid dollars.

An Associated Press review of data found that Hoboken has so far received a level of aid from state-run programs that is similar to what other towns were awarded.

The Mile Square City has so far received two state grants from pools of state-controlled money, according to the AP.

Of $25 million available for energy projects to help deal with outages, Hoboken received $142,080 -- the same amount as 39 other recipients received.

The state also provided money to communities to hire experts and come up with long-term recovery plans. Hoboken's $200,000 grant was the fourth-highest allocation among the 35 local governments in the program, the AP reported.

Zimmer’s spokesman, Juan Melli, told the AP that just because Hoboken’s allotment is on par with that of other towns' shares, that doesn’t mean the city has received what it deserves.

One local Zimmer critic believes the mayor has been all show and no substance when it comes to Sandy.

“The people of Hoboken took care of each other during Sandy,” 1st Ward Councilwoman Theresa Castellano said. “She went around taking photos. It was absolutely a media blitz.”

Castellano also doesn’t cut Zimmer any slack for waiting to reveal she was getting heat in May from state officials to support a development project.

“If I believe her, then she withheld that information all those months, probably because she was concerned about her own re-election,” Castellano said. “I think that would be official misconduct to withhold that information.”

On the other side of the council divide, Council President Peter Cunningham said he trusts Zimmer implicitly.

“I believe Dawn is as honest as a summer day is long,” he said. “If she says she was feeling pressure, I believe her. … I applaud Dawn. Her integrity is pure.”

For her part, Zimmer said she abides by her crew team’s credo:

"Stay focused on your goal. You can't start thinking about the pain. You have to push through absolutely as hard as you can."